The Monetary Authority of Macao announced today that the preliminary estimate of Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to MOP133.9 billion (USD16.77 billion) at the end of October 2012. The reserves increased by 0.8% or MOP1.1 billion from the revised value of MOP132.7 billion (USD16.62 billion) for the previous month. Macao SAR’s foreign exchange reserves at end-October 2012 represented 19 times the currency in circulation or 156.0% of Pataca M2 at end-September 2012.

The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca, a gauge of the domestic currency’s exchange rates against the currencies of Macao’s major trading partners, fell by 0.48 points month-to-month but rose by 0.91 points year-on-year to 97.07 in October 2012.